Modifying Bolt Snaps

[power2x1]

Has anyone modified their bolt snaps - filing down the thumb triggers? I stumbled across a web page a while back that showed the modifications, but I can't seem find it again.

Comments for/against making the modification...?

Thanks,
Marc

[BigJetDriver]

power2x1 once bubbled...
Has anyone modified their bolt snaps - filing down the thumb triggers? Comments for/against making the modification...?

Thanks,
Marc

My PPO2:

I am not quite certain why anyone would want to do this. To assert that this would somehow decrease the risk of entanglement would be to avoid the more obvious. It certainly would make it much harder to release the damned things, and there are times when you certainly would want to release them, such as when handing off an auxiliary bottle, etc. There are much better things to spend your time on when it comes to streamlining and tucking gear!;)

[O-ring]

The guys I know that have done it have used a dremel or other suitable grinder. I haven't had much problem with those things trapping line, so I never bothered...too much hassle, IMHO.

[Doppler]

Cave diving section of Home Depot sells the small rechargeable dremel tools and you can sit and grind to your heart's content... but I'm with the rest of you folks... why bother... I can however see using the dremel to take off sharp edges -- which here in the land of drygloves, many of us do bother to do....

[O-ring]

Cave diving section of Home Depot
I have always wondered why they didn't label it as such..

[Doppler]

Eric... I was at a HD store in Ohio one time looking for wing nuts for my doubles (don't ask) and the guy helping me out asked: "Hey bud, you a cave diver?" Go figure... Florida I can understand, but Holland, Ohio?

[power2x1]

I agree that there are better (and more useful...) ways to streamline - I was mainly interested in finding out why someone would want to file down their bolt snaps. The guys at the local dive shop hadn't heard of anyone doing this, and wondered about the motivation for doing so - which made me more than a little curious too.

Line snagging might be part of it, but I'm sure those who have done so have other reasons.

O-Ring - any other possibilities? You seem to have exposure to "grinders"...

If I'm going to do something (or not do it, for that matter), I like to least have a good reason for doing (or not doing...) so. I'm not one to blindly do something just because someone else is doing it

- Marc

"Hey - where'd all the lemmings go?"

[Genesis]

and lost a stringer with a big fish on it as a consequence.

There was a strong series of 4-letter words emitted through my regulator as I watched the barracudas under the boat devour my feast.

However, I doubt that modifying the "trigger part" would have changed the outcome here.

[O-ring]

O-Ring - any other possibilities? You seem to have exposure to "grinders"...
But a picture is worth a thousand words, right? What people are grinding off is the little notch in the thumb slide so it doesn't catch lines. See the pics below.

[O-ring]

nt

[O-ring]

nt

[O-ring]

nt

[BigJetDriver]

Nice series of pics, O-ring!;)

[power2x1]

I finally found that website again when I got home from work:

http://www.tue.org.uk/Bolt%20snaps.htm

The website has a bunch of DIR configuration pictures, hints, and tips - and this page on bolt snaps was among them.

If the bolt snap thumb slides are a possible line snag/hazard of significance, why isn't grinding them down "standard".

As someone newly exposed to the DIR philosophy/method/mindset, it seems stange to me that some practices are gospel to some, but laughed at by others.

Thanks for the replies all, especially to O-Ring....

- Marc

[O-ring]

If the bolt snap thumb slides are a possible line snag/hazard of significance, why isn't grinding them down "standard".

As someone newly exposed to the DIR philosophy/method/mindset, it seems stange to me that some practices are gospel to some, but laughed at by others.
Excellent question actually..and I don't really have an answer. For me, I just looked at the number of times that I have had line snagged in bolt snap thumb slides (zero) and the number of bolt snaps I carry on me that I can't easily reach and clear should line get entangled in them (zero) and decided not to mess with it.

[power2x1]

This is the reply I got from T.U.E. when I asked them about the modified bolt snaps on their web page:

" I am quite surprised that EE/Halcyon/GUE/WKPP don't use/make/recommend them. On a recent OHE course the ONLY boltsnap that caught any line was...........yup you've guessed was the ONLY one that I hadn't removed the entrapment point from! Needless to say this really proved my point as to why these little excess bits should be removed.
Stainless boltsnaps are the attachment point, "trimmed" ones are safer and better. The only problem is cutting the stainless steel (its VERY hard)! Typical places where "untrimmed" boltsnaps can catch line are: boltsnap on the Goodman handle, boltsnap on a Pathfinder reel (this is modified from the EE version, it comes standard with a double ender, this has an uncanny act of undoing itself from the reel when you and your buddy are not looking, we "modify" this by attaching a trimmed boltsnap with cave line, the length of cave line is enough to let the boltsnap lay flat along the handle when in use).

Hope this helps, if there is any thing else I can help with just let me know.

The web site is fairly new, any comments?

Safe diving,

Mike
Torbay Underwater Explorers.
Visit www.tue.org.uk for DIR diving in Devon"

With all of that said, and with the amount and type of diving that I typically do (open water, north California...), I'm going to leave mine un-modified for now.

Thanks again for all the insights and opinions....

- Marc